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  • Re: Help brewing big beer

    From joshua.willett@joshua.willett@gmail.com to alt.beer.home-brewing on Sun Dec 7 16:38:54 2008
    From Newsgroup: alt.beer.home-brewing

    On Nov 18, 6:33 pm, Jason Maur <jmau...@yahoo.com> wrote:
    Hey all,

    I recently brewed a pretty big beer by my
    standards, a barleywine with an original potential
    alcohol of about 13%, but after 2 weeks in my
    primary fermentation, I'm confident that the
    yeast hasn't done a very good job.

    There are a few things you can do. When you move your beer to the
    2ndary that will help stir up the yeast and will start a 2nd
    fermentation period. Many barleywines are also brewed with a champagne
    or a wine yeast for the higher alcohol content and white labs now
    makes a pitchable high gravity yeast.
    You shouldn't feel bad about re pitching yeast at all, as it is not unreasonable, or even out of the ordinary for high gravity beers. The
    alcohol content kills the yeast and makes it hard for the yeast to do
    its job at around 9%.
    I would deff suggest getting the beer you have off of the yeast, and
    into a 2ndary vessel for the time being. And then pitch a higher
    alcohol strain with a little nutrient and perhaps a small 1qt, or even
    1pt starter...
    ~J~
    What can I do if I still have 9 or 10% alcohol?
    Should I buy another yeast pack or try to reuse
    the yeast that's in there already?

    Any suggestions are appreciated.

    Cheers,

         Jason
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